Computer systems and computational technologies have steadily evolved, during the past 70 years, from initial vacuum-tube-based systems that lacked operating systems, compilers, network connectivity, and most other common features of modern computing systems to vast distributed computing systems that include large numbers of multi-processor servers, data-storage appliances, and multiple layers of internal communications networks interconnected by various types of wide-area networks and that provide computational resources to hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands, or more remote users. As operating systems, and virtualization layers have been developed and refined, over the years, in parallel with the advancements in computer hardware and networking, the robust execution environments provided by distributed operating systems and virtualization layers now provide a foundation for development and evolution of many different types of distributed application programs, including distributed database-management systems, distributed client-server applications, and distributed web-based service-provision applications.
In a different evolutionary trend in computing and electronics, small portable computing devices, including laptops, tablets, and smart phones, have gained widespread acceptance and are increasingly replacing PCs and other desk top computers. Just as desktop computers overtook minicomputers in computational bandwidth and cost effectiveness, smart phones are now overtaking traditional PCs and desktop computer systems, not only with respect to computational bandwidth, but perhaps more importantly with respect to usability and to matching provided functionalities with user needs. Interestingly, the average current smart phone has far greater memory capacity and instruction-execution bandwidth than supercomputers of up to the early 1990s.
Various types of relationship counseling have been in practice probably for hundreds of years. With the development of psychology and interest in psychology and emotional health over the past 100 years, more systematic approaches to relationship counseling have arisen. During the past 30 years, along with the development of processor-controlled electronic systems, electronic communications, and audio and visual functionalities that can be relatively easily incorporated into processor-controlled systems, various types of specialized and generally human-supervised relationship-counseling support systems have been developed, along with interactive relationship-counseling environments, to evaluate and diagnose problems in relationships and assist relationship-counseling patients to take steps to improve their relationships and personal emotional health. However, the specialized and human-supervised relationship-counseling-support systems have limited availability, are cumbersome and expensive to manage and maintain, and fail to take advantage of enormous developments in distributed-computer systems, electronic communications, evolution of personal computing devices, and powerful pattern-recognition computational technologies, including machine-learning systems and classifiers, neural networks, and other new computational technologies.